In the labeling of containers, in particular in cold glue labeling, there are many variants for the combination of label feeders, i.e. pallet units, bottle carousels with the containers to be labeled, and the transfer units used in-between, i.e. gripper cylinders. In particular, the pitch of the bottle carousel, i.e. how many bottles or containers per angular element are to be labeled on the carousel, the pitch of the feeder, i.e. how many transfer positions and thus pallets per angular element are provided, have an influence on the pitch of the transfer unit, i.e. the gripper cylinder, to be selected. Here, the label length of the labels to be transferred also plays a decisive role. In prior art, when the label length is changed, the gripper cylinders also must be changed, and often the complete gripper cylinder unit must be exchanged. One problem here is that the synchronization of the three units, that means the pallet rotor/feeder, the gripper cylinder unit and the bottle carousel, must be ensured, so that the containers can be labeled with the desired labels at a provided speed.
DE 29 05 376 shows a transport starwheel for bottles with a rotatingly driven support at which several conveyor holders are provided, wherein the conveyor holders can be swiveled relative to the support by means of a stationary control cam, so that one can allow for a predetermined pitch in the running-in area and another predetermined pitch in the discharge area. Independent of the control cam, the smallest pitch is determined only by the stops of the conveyor holders by elastic means, and several bottle diameters can be driven with one single cam shape.